Fyria Lutinne slunk into her next lesson late, glad Bliss wasn't there.

She could see the interested glances people were throwing her way as she waited miserably at the front of the room, trying not to meet anyone's eyes. She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, hating the piercing glances and barrage of whispers that she couldn't hear, but knew they were talking about her.

The teacher barely looked at her, saying, "Go and sit at the back." He gestured to an empty seat, one of two left in the room. "You'll have to get notes from someone for what you've missed so far this year." And that was another thing. Ria was in her junior year and she had missed half the work. Great. Who was she supposed to get notes from? These sneering gossiping people? No.

Fyria nodded silently and walked, head down, clutching her books. She stumbled over a bag and heard the sniggers. She could feel her face flushing as she blinked back tears. God, she hated it here. All Ria wanted to do was run back to the time when she was happy. That was a while ago.

She sat through the lesson without listening to anything. Ria felt like she was a creature in a zoo. She tried to ignore the whispers and stares directed at her, but eventually she couldn't stand it anymore as malicious giggles erupted from the girls on her right. She heard the whisper. "God, that girl's a frak. Looks likes a bad imitation of her sister."

Standing up, she grabbed her books and ran out the room, tears streaming down her face.

Ria kept running until she was outside. Throwing herself down under a tree, flinging her bag against the trunk, she sat with her head in her hands crying. Sobbing softly, she felt like her heart would break from the unhappiness.

So she didn't hear the footsteps or see the boy bend down, didn't notice him until she a voice said gently, "Hey, what's wrong?"

She didn't look up, just cried even harder, humiliation added to the list of injustices. "Go away. Nothing's wrong," she choked.

He didn't move. She heard his voice, low, with an odd accent behind it. "That's not true." He didn't need to add the words, 'I'm not leaving'. It was in his voice.

Most people didn't hang around when they saw someone crying. Startled, Ria lifted a tearstained face to him. And promptly forgot what she was going to say.

Every thought flew out of her head, except one, which circled round her mind, over and over. He's beautiful.

He was. The boy was crouched down by her, looking at her with concern in clear cat green eyes. Unruly blond hair fell straight over his face. Which had perfect features - those strange slightly slanted eyes over a straight nose and firm lips that were curved in a faint confident smile as he saw her scrutiny.

He smiled widely. "I wish I affected everyone like that." He murmured quietly. He had a pleasant voice, Ria decided; soft, almost a purr with that accent that she couldn't place making him sound a little formal.

"Huh?" Great. Good comment, Ria. Now he thinks you're a *complete* idiot.

He just laughed, tilting back his head, hair glowing gold in the sunlight. "You stopped crying."

To her surprise, she realised he was right. She had been so stunned it had just cut off her mind from her problems. She looked away, blushing. He must think she was an airhead; all it took to make her happy was a very good- looking guy.

But he just smiled in his heart-melting way and held out a hand. She took it, found herself hauled up so she stood level with him. For all her cowering appearance, Ria was tall and she saw the boy's eyebrows raise in slight astonishment.

He stood back and looked her up and down, but not in a lecherous way. Just...appraising her. Quietly Ria endured his gaze, then he smiled again - he seemed to do a lot of that - showing sharp white teeth. "I'm-" he began, but he didn't get any further.

"Hey! Jep!" Two voices, one slightly higher and sweeter, came from their left. Ria noticed the voices harmonised perfectly. Strange. The boy swung round to face the voices, obviously surprised. Two people were approaching, one slightly taller, the smaller figure seemed to glow in the hot sun.

Ria took the opportunity to study him more closely. Nice profile. Better than nice. Tall, evidently. Surprisingly slender, almost thin. But she got the impression there was power there. He was like a coiled spring. His hair, she realised now, wasn't just blond. Odd brown patches, vaguely circular were speckled on his hair.

"Who's this, then?" she stopped her inspection, flushing as she realised the speaker, a boy who looked a lot like some sort of fox on legs, was watching her with interest.

The boy he had called Jep shrugged. "I don't know," he said with some chagrin, turning to look at Ria. "I didn't find out her name before you two came charging up." He glared at the pair in mock anger. Ria realised with a pang that they were close friends. She wished wistfully that she had such friends.

The girl stepped forward. Tiny with hair that looked silver, she made Ria feel like a clumsy giant. "Unity." She said this in a clear voice, but looked a little cautious.

Fyria replied automatically, like Bliss had taught her. "Unity."

Jep looked at her with surprise and faint consternation in his cat eyes. "And I thought you were human," he murmured with quiet respect, more to himself than her.

Too late, Ria realised what she had said. And what they all were. Nightpeople. How *could* she have been so blind? All of them were beautiful in the Nightworld's weird celestial way.

The girl, she realised, really did have silver hair and even brighter sparkling eyes of glowing liquid silver. Not grey, as she'd first thought. She looked like something from a myth - one of the faeries that were wild, unearthly and a little dangerous. That was how the girl looked. Infinitely lovely, but with something very menacing under that cool façade. Fyria wondered what she was. Not a vampire. The bracelet she wore gave it away. It was golden with a cluster of bell-like flowers on it. A black foxglove. So she was a shapeshifter, but what sort of animal, Ria couldn't guess. Why the girl had greeted her in the witches way, she didn't know either. She looked closely at the girl. She 'shifted into an arctic creature maybe - that matched her colouring. But a Nightperson all the same.

Her companion looked more...real. That was the only way she could describe him. Solid. Definitely *there*. Medium height, just a few inches taller than the 'shifter-girl with warm amber-gold eyes, like a topaz gem and wild fox-coat hair with a slight wave in it. His smile was good, too. It was very unfair. She couldn't see any of the Nightworld signs, though. He must be human - but why travel with a 'shifter? Unless...yes, they could be Daybreakers.

And lastly, him. She realised belatedly that his T-shirt had a black foxglove on it. And the hair, of course. He was one of the big cats. A leopard, maybe, or a cheetah. But not a human.

Ria felt like a weed in a rose garden compared to the three of them.

She saw suddenly, that they were all staring at her, looking worried. "Are you all right?" asked the girl gently.

"I'm fine," Ria said weakly. Then without thinking she added, "it's just a shock seeing Nightpeople." She stifled a groan. <> she thought glumly. Her mind ran screaming 'What have I done? What have I done?' hysterically. Now they thought she was a witch. But she was just a human. And what happened if they wanted some sort of proof? Then with relief she remembered the ring Bliss had lent her. It was a black dahlia, the witch's flower. So she was safe, temporarily.

The girl smiled sympathetically. "It's a shock when you first get, here, I know. But this place is packed with rebels and outlaws. You'll get used to it."

Ria shrugged morosely. Well, she had fooled them for the minute, but none of them were stupid.

Unexpectedly, the human, who'd been staring at her intently, asked with quiet caution, "Are you with Daybreak?"

Fyria thought quickly. This was just the excuse she needed. And maybe, for once, it would make Bliss happy, stop her taking out her anger on Ria. "Yes," she said firmly. "You know about the trouble you've had here, " she gambled.

The girl laughed and she saw the human smile in private amusement. "You bet we do," the girl said with a devilish smile. "I'm Dragon, and this is Matt." She gestured towards the fox-like boy. "But if you're from Daybreak, I guess you know that. But don't go telling everyone you're a Daybreaker. A lot of the Nightpeople don't like Daybreak. Especially the ones here."

Ria was shaken. These two had killed a dragon. Well, the girl had. And she was know ordinary 'shifter. She was Dragon, born Reva, the legendary dragon- witch. And he was Matt Wolff, the human who'd left Daybreak. And they knew her target, the person they had to assassinate. And horrible, awful realisation dawned on Fyria Lutinne.

She recalled Kobe's description of their mark. "He's tall. Smiles a lot. Green eyes - like a cat's for a very good reason. Blond and brown hair. Too clever for his own good. And he has some mighty powerful friends. Like that revolting little dragon and the boy they say is her soulmate."

Ria felt her face drain of colour as she looked at the guy opposite her, with his too familiar cat green eyes and tall lithe body. Oh *no*. The one guy who had actually befriended her and she had to kill him. Not now, though, as if that made it any better. She didn't want to deceive him, but she had to.

And as if to confirm her horror, the boy with the 'shifters walk and sunny smile said, "I'm Jepar Jubatus."

Jepar watched her while Dragon and Matt interrogated her quietly. They wouldn't call it that, of course, but neither of them realised how they sounded.

It was the witch that intrigued him. Jepar knew she was hiding something. He wished someone would be honest with him, just once. It was like Dragon over again and boy, had she had secrets. But there was something terribly wretched in her face and those vivid turquoise eyes were sad and scared. He was very curious. And maybe curiosity had killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

His excellent vision had showed him the momentary widening of her eyes and paling of her skin when he had introduced himself. So she knew of him, but why so timid? For a witch, she was very unusual. They were usually confident. Some, like Blaise Harman, were overconfident, but they were never cowering.

Her voice was shy, too, as she asked Dragon demurely, in the mist of the questions the dragon-witch was firing at her, "How did you kill the dragon?"

Jepar hid a laugh. This girl had achieved the one thing nobody else could. She had shut Dragon up. Dragon slaying was generally not the sort of thing polite, reserved Nightpeople talked about. He saw Matt and Dragon exchange glances and for moment felt a strange longing for the closeness those two had. Where was his soulmate? Did he even have one? Probably not.

He turned his attention back to the girl. Fyria Lutinne. It was a pretty name. A witch name. He knew it meant elfborn. That suited her. She looked like an elf with her huge wide-set eyes that dominated her face, the rest of her features delicate and insignificant in comparison and her tall, slender figure with the pale red-gold hair. He saw those same features reflect astonishment as Dragon and Matt related their fantastic tale. She listened silently, just stopping them occasionally to timidly ask a question.

Idly he compared her to Dragon. Silver hair and eyes, the slight fighter's body and her lack of height, something which she hated, with her fierce, confident and happy personality. Although she hadn't been that happy until she met Matt.

And Fyria, shy and elusive, unhappy, trying to hide it, fearful and wary. Both were witches, but otherwise completely different.

Jepar glanced at his watch, glad he was missing this lesson. He hated history and besides, he had a lot to catch up on with Matt and Dragon. The only kind of history that interested him was the shapeshifters and he could just ask Dragon for that. After all, she'd lived through it.

Dragon and Matt had finished their tale. Which, the 'shifter had to admit, sounded like something from the Night Wars and beyond. If he hadn't been there, Jepar would not have believed it. Yet this Fyria-elfborn accepted it totally. Either she was very innocent, or a good actor. He couldn't sense any scepticism from her mind. In fact, he couldn't sense anything.

"Jepar?" He realised indistinctly that his dragon friend was talking to him. "Home planet to Jepar, this is Earth here. Report."

"Huh?" he looked around wildly, then focused on Dragon and glared at her.

He heard Fyria laugh and her face changed completely. He just stared, like an idiot. Her turquoise eyes seemed aglow and her hair caught in the sun as she threw her head back, laughing completely, from her soul. She really is stunning he thought dazedly. Glancing at his friends' features, he could see the surprise mirroring his own. For a moment, just a moment, her mind was unguarded and all three of them caught a dizzying myriad of images. He realised she had been called Ria by her old friends. Ria. Yeah, that was her. The other image that stood out was that of curvaceous, model-beautiful girl. Ria didn't like her. Jepar thought she seemed familiar somehow. Then he realised. She was like Bella had been. Just beauty over an ugly black heart.

Ria stopped laughing and saw them all staring at her. Her mind slammed shut. "What?" she gasped, sounding frantic. She was terrified, he realised. Back to the guarded, sad girl again. Now she just looked fragile with tearstains trailing down her face and red puffy eyes.

And they didn't exactly do much to pacify her, Jepar thought, just mumbled idiot comments like, "Nothing." "Just, you know, surprised."

After that, she was obviously uncomfortable and ran off as soon as it was her next lesson, leaving a regretful Jepar behind. He watched until she was out of sight, wondering what had changed her so much from that happy creature she had been. He had the feeling that the model-girl with the flame hair had something to do with it.

But then he turned back to Dragon and Matt, who both looked more than a little baffled. The three of them started talking; they had a lot to catch up on in the month since they had left. Jepar realised resignedly that he was late for his lesson. Never mind, he could skip physics. And he wouldn't miss it.